Say you are good enough to make a division I sports team while in law school, are you eligible to play on that law school's undergraduate institution's div. I team if you still have eligible seasons left?

Long and short of it is that you're and idiot if you do...You're not allowed to work more than 20hrs a week while in law school, what makes you think you could keep up with the commitment to play at the D1 level?? IF your focus isn't totally on law school, you are wasting a lot of money, just to feed your ego. If you had a chance to move on and play something professionally, then why are you even considering law school??

Interesting question. Anyone know the rules on club sports? I hear that you have 4 years of eligibility but years spent playing varsity sports are used against you. This would leave me with 1 year of eligibility to play...and if I am eligible, I am going to do it. Does anyone know if this is true?

Depends on the sport. Different national governing bodies (talking club here) have different rules.

As far as NCAA, unless you took a redshirt year, your timer started ticking once you walked onto your undergrad campus and hasn't stopped since.

NCAA Eligibility rules14.2.1 Five-Year Rule - A student-athlete shall complete his or her seasons of participation within five calendar years from the beginning of the semester or quarter in which the student-athlete first registered for a minimum full-time program of studies in a collegiate institution, with time spent in the armed services, on official church missions or with recognized foreign aid services of the U.S. government being excepted.

Last edited by StyrofoamWar on Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

renee15 wrote:Interesting question. Anyone know the rules on club sports? I hear that you have 4 years of eligibility but years spent playing varsity sports are used against you. This would leave me with 1 year of eligibility to play...and if I am eligible, I am going to do it. Does anyone know if this is true?

All I know is that you have 5 years of eligibility once you begin your first season in a sport. Obviously you can only play 4 years, but the 5 years of eligibility allows for an injury, red-shirt, etc.

there is also an age issue. you must be under 21 if you want to get all 4 years of eligibility when you start your sport. Some Israeli athletes run into this issue and must show that they were doing manadatory armed forces service to get their full three years.

Also, you must start w/in 5 years of started UG.

But here is the gospel.. from the NCAA the actual rules from the NCAA (LinkRemoved)

I played D1 ball in undergrad and I seriously doubt you would be able to keep up with your law classes when making that kind of time commitment to a sport. It was hard just keeping up with my undergrad classes. Of course every sport is different and each one has different levels of time commitment based on the numbers of games/matches played and the amount of travel.

but the above 5-year rule is the TCR. i am pretty sure d1 eligibility dries up once you graduate and didn't file for a red-shirt year. but this is just what i know from my d1 sport and a situation my teammate was in. nevertheless, i couldn't even imagine trying to keep up with 1L and playing d1 competitively.

eberl032 wrote:I feel like this is a valid question, and I'd be lying if I didnt admit I wanted to know the answer as well.

I would like to play college sports in law school just for fun/fitness/keeping me sane. Altough D1 might really hinder your 1L grades.

Are the rules different if its a D2 sport? Otherwise one can always participate in intramurials

I'm not 100% of this, but my brother runs D1 track and he was having a conversation with his coach and he said something along the lines that unlike D1 where you have a 5 year window from enrollment to complete 4 years, in D2 your time in school and your athletic eligibility run separate. I'm assuming this would be the same for D3 as well. So, theoretically If someone who didn't play any collegiate sport in UG would have 4 years of eligibility left when they go to Law School. Also, if this is true, in my estimation playing a college sport at D2 or D3 and maintaining suitable grades in law school would be somewhat easier than playing one at the D1 level because usually the conferences in D2 and D3 have schools that are more less situated near one another more so than a D1 conference. For instance, the conference Washington and Lee play in, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference have all but one of their schools in VA, the other being in Greensboro NC. Where as my D1 UG institution in NC competes with schools like Fordham and the University of Rhode Island.

BlueDiamond wrote:Couldn't you just save your year of eligibility for 2L or 3L? Everyone always hops on people that bring this up, but we all talk about never having work/never doing work during the final two years.

This would seem to make the most sense, if OP is insistent on competing athletically. I personally think it's a horrible decision no matter when it's done; spend your time and energy doing something that will make you a more marketable legal professional.

...on second thought, OP playing D1 sports in law school = 1 less serious competitor. Knock yourself out, bro.

the first law school student to play division 1 football was Bert Fortuna Jr. of drake university in Iowa. mr Fortuna grew up poor and worked towards a full ride scholarship that paid for his college and his first year of law school.

He has an amazing story of joining the usmc I. The 70s to pay for his education. Great man and a great story

You could definitely do this, especially if you're willing to skip classes for trips/practice/meetings/film/etc. You'd be an athlete first and a law student second, but let's be serious, law school isn't that hard. 5 years to play 4, so don't try to "save it" for 2L, doesn't work like that.